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Torrid month sees Man City fans' confidence in their squad and manager tumble

FourFourTwo and Forza Football have surveyed 200,000 fans of Premier League clubs to gauge their confidence in their team's manager, players and chairman/owner. Here, Nick Harper picks through the findings to see how Manchester City fans' mood has changed over the season...

Having witnessed Steven Gerrard hand their team the Premier League trophy on a silver platter last season, Manchester City’s rational followers knew not to get too carried away going into this campaign.

Their confidence in their title-winning coach, Manuel Pellegrini, was only at 67% as we approached the first game, and confidence in his very expensively assembled squad was only 72%.

Both figures will have had as much to do with the 3-0 Community Shield defeat to Arsenal as any sense of trepidation, and two quick league victories soon bumped the percentages up to 77% and 82% respectively. From that point forth though, it’s been a slow descent.

Spiking briefly following the derby victory (81% squad confidence and 78% Pellegrini), City’s Champions League failings and unconvincing league form have taken their toll on the fans’ confidence. On the back of a very fortuitous draw at QPR, confidence in the team now sits at just 68%, while confidence in Manuel Pellegrini is 10% less, on 58%. Hark, the sound of sharpening knives?